Root Divine Artifact

The Dao Ancestor transmitted the Mystic Gate; three thousand seekers gathered at Purple Cloud Palace.

In the primordial age, before the Heavenly Court was established, ancient cultivators refined Qi and comprehended the Dao. There were no systematic cultivation methods, and ancient cultivators who attained the Dao and became gods were often masters of a single Dao.

The True God Realm was equivalent to Yin Ming's current True Immortal Realm, the highest realm cultivators could reach in ancient times.

Later, the Dao Ancestor severed the Three Corpses and attained enlightenment, giving birth to the Mystic through the Dao and using the "Mystic Gate" to unite all paths. Only then did realms above the True Immortal Realm come into being.

However, those who had already become fixed in their godhood had to reincarnate and cultivate anew if they wished to enter the Mystic Gate.

Abolishing thousands or even tens of thousands of years of divine cultivation was not only a terrible waste, but also required risking one's life.

Thus, the Dao Ancestor and the three thousand seekers deduced this art together: the Primordial God-Devil Forging Art.

None of this had been described in Zhu Bajie's jade slip.

Half of it was information Yin Ming had obtained from the tombs of his predecessors by seeking dragons and locating acupoints.

The other half was reasonable speculation based on that information.

Fortunately, the world had entered the Age of Dharma Decline. Otherwise, he could never have gathered so many secret accounts and the true arts kept strictly confidential by great sects.

"..."

"The Primordial God-Devil Forging Art! The artifacts it forges can broadly be divided into two kinds: Divine Artifacts and Immortal Artifacts."

Immortal Artifacts resembled the natal treasures found in novels and storybooks—treasures or weapons that could grow alongside their "owner."

Yin Ming had no intention of forging an Immortal Artifact. What he lacked was a cheat that would let him cling to a powerful thigh, not something that would grow with him.

The second kind, Divine Artifacts, were like creation treasures nurtured by heaven and earth, wondrous objects seemingly manifested from the Great Dao itself.

Divine Artifacts could further be divided into Root Divine Artifacts, or Innate Spiritual Treasures, and Sub-Root Divine Artifacts, or Acquired Spiritual Treasures.

The difficulty in forging an Innate Spiritual Treasure lay in the fact that every radish had its own hole.

A law of heaven and earth had to be complete. In other words, no immortal could have obtained the Dao Fruit of that type of law.

Otherwise, it could only become an Acquired Spiritual Treasure.

From the terms innate and acquired alone,

it was not difficult to infer that there had been a point in time when Innate Spiritual Treasures came into being: the establishment of the Heavenly Court.

By then, heaven and earth had already weathered several great calamities. Of the three thousand seekers once gathered in Purple Cloud Palace, not even a few remained alive and whole.

The Dao Ancestor gathered the Innate Spiritual Treasures of the world and refined them together into the Investiture of the Gods, making it the foundation for establishing the Heavenly Court.

The Heavenly Court occupied the vast majority of Orthodox God positions and laid down heavenly rules and laws: without receiving an immortal registry, one could not attain a divine office, much less privately forge a Root Divine Artifact.

The few surviving Root Divine Artifacts thus came to be called Innate Spiritual Treasures, meaning treasures born before the Heavenly Court and not bound by its heavenly rules and laws.

Take Yue Lao, the God of Marriage, for example. The red thread, Marriage Tree, and Marriage Ledger had all been split from the Innate Spiritual Treasure, the Red Embroidered Ball.

So long as the Heavenly Court endured, no one could attain an Orthodox God position through "marriage." At most, beings such as the Rabbit God, who governed ill-fated romances, or the Tree of Bitter Love, which governed love between humans and demons, could emerge.

In terms of divine rank, they were all subordinate gods beneath the Orthodox God of Marriage. Forged into artifacts, they would be Acquired Spiritual Treasures.

"..."

"I pay homage to the sages who created this art. Today, this little immortal Yin Ming shall forge an artifact from a gourd and cultivate the Great Dao anew!"

Yin Ming sat cross-legged, five centers facing heaven, and entered meditation and visualization.

Within his sea of consciousness, the Corpse-Liberation Artifact floated in the air, with no Primordial Spirit residing inside.

The Primordial God-Devil Forging Art began to circulate, and his Corpse-Liberation Immortal cultivation continuously dispersed, becoming kindling for artifact forging.

Lightning tribulation, astral winds, Yang Spirit, bathing in fire...

His divine sense shrank from covering a radius of one kilometer, to nine hundred meters, eight hundred meters, seven hundred meters...

Until it could no longer leave his body to see, and in the end, even his night vision vanished.

Tempered by immense spiritual power, the jade-green gourd was like true gold forged in fire. It gleamed brilliantly, releasing boundless divine light and echoing the laws of the Great Dao hidden in the unseen.

An artifact nurtured by heaven and earth was the finest vessel for refining a Spiritual Treasure.

As a Corpse-Liberation Artifact, it was naturally compatible with Yin Ming's soul. Once forged into a Spiritual Treasure, it would also spare him the effort of refining it.

"Bzzzz..."

Suddenly, the jade-green gourd began to tremble without stop.

Dao essence coiled around its entire body as countless fragments of laws manifested.

Like mountains, like water, like blades and swords, like wind and clouds, like thunderbolts—the three thousand Great Daos shifted endlessly, encompassing all things and changing beyond measure.

Golden light around him turned into fine strands, like golden ribbons drifting in the wind. Five-colored auspicious qi became hanging clouds, like the Nine-Revolution Golden Core that had just emerged from Lord Lao's furnace.

"The Immortal Dao Rank contains three thousand laws. Forging a Divine Artifact is completely random, like drawing a lottery. Any kind of Divine Artifact could be born."

"If this strand of the 'purity' law became the foundation, it could produce a rather good Acquired Spiritual Treasure."

The gourd was only one final step away from becoming an artifact.

Yin Ming hesitated, sensing the fragment of the "purity" law within his body.

In this world, he did not need to worry about being punished by the Heavenly Court. He could forge a Root Divine Artifact boldly and without restraint. His sole concern was the quality of the Spiritual Treasure.

A Seven-Circle Wizard was equivalent in rank to a primordial God or Devil. He did not know whether any positions remained vacant.

Forging an Innate Spiritual Treasure would naturally be cause for celebration.

But if he settled for second best, even a top-grade Acquired Spiritual Treasure would count as capital enough to secure his life and livelihood.

Yin Ming now faced two choices. He could add this strand of the "purity" law to meet the minimum requirement, but doing so would sever any possibility of forging the gourd into an Innate Spiritual Treasure.

Conversely, there was a chance he could refine an Innate Spiritual Treasure, but the greater possibility was that he would forge a useless Acquired Spiritual Treasure.

"There may be countless Acquired Spiritual Treasures, but an Innate Spiritual Treasure is one of a kind. Having come to another world of the Great Dao, how could I not take a gamble?"

Dawn was near!

Before long, Jeroen Hoven would use his whip to drag every serf from sleep.

Yin Ming decisively injected the last strand of his cultivation into the jade-green gourd, completing the final transformation of the Primordial God-Devil Forging Art.

In an instant, the towering divine radiance withdrew, the Dao essence dispersed, and countless secret inscriptions formed within it.

Even the jade-green luster of the gourd vanished completely, turning it into a dull, weathered yellow-skin gourd that seemed to have endured endless ages.

"..."

The Divine Artifact had been forged!

There were no heaven-shaking phenomena. Every phenomenon had occurred solely within his own sea of consciousness.

Jack and Randy, who shared the room with him, lay sleeping soundly on their stone beds, their snores rolling like thunder. They noticed nothing unusual.

But for powerful beings capable of sensing the sea of laws, this night was no different from a tsunami.

"A new god has been born. The wizards have produced a new god—the menu has grown much richer."

In the deepest reaches of the Ten-Thousand Serpent Cavern, within a blood pool tens of thousands of zhang wide, a naked young girl slowly emerged. Her tender snake head licked its lips and spat out a crystal-like skull.

Countless twisted, terrifying giant serpents became extraordinarily active in winter. Different species began mating and reproducing; young snakes shed their skins and evolved their bloodlines; some even devoured one another.

"Who is it? Why can the divination crystal ball not capture it? Could a new law have been born?"

At the Eternal Black Tower, the sky and stars seemed within arm's reach.

A white-robed wizard meditating atop the tower awoke with a start. He used a crystal ball to divine the new god, and after countless failures, a crazed smile appeared on his deeply wrinkled face.

"Soon! Soon! Just a little more, and I will successfully descend!"

In an unknown, dark plane, countless shadow-like creatures died as they pushed a black planet forward. Suddenly, a fissure opened in the planet, and a red eye opened. After glancing into the void, it closed once more.